• During this time, contact center hours will be 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. CT, Monday through Friday.
• We will continue to pay annuities and insurance claims as usual.
• We will continue to accept payments through the drop box at the front of the building.
• We will conduct personal retirement counseling sessions by phone. If you scheduled an in-person counseling session, verify your phone number in the confirmation email we sent. If needed, log in to ERS OnLine to update your number.
• You can do many things with your ERS account, 24/7, through self-service ERS OnLine.

Plan Year 2019 TexFlex balances and claims

Plan Year 2019 TexFlex balances and claims

Wait! I haven’t used all of the money in my TexFlex flexible spending account (FSA).

Take a deep breath and…

Remember the carryover or grace period

Health care FSA and limited FSA participants can carry over $25 to $500 of unused funds from one plan year to the next. (Any amount over $500 will be forfeited.) This feature, paired with a run-out period, helps ensure you won’t have to forfeit any funds.Here’s an example of how it might work:

You contributed $625 to your health care FSA in Plan Year 2019 (about $52 per month).

You have itemized receipts for $125 worth of eligible health care expenses you incurred between September 1, 2018 and August 31, 2019 that you can submit.

You submit the claims before December 31, 2019.

$500 carries over and becomes available in your account for Plan Year 2020.

Important!

You have a run-out period until December 31, 2019 to file claims for eligible expenses you had during Plan Year 2019. The claims must be posted (and mailed claims postmarked) no later than December 31. Claims sent in after December 31 will be denied.

In the example above, if you don’t submit those claims by December 31, you will lose $125 of your carryover balance and your total Plan Year 2020 balance will increase by $500.

What about a dependent care FSA?

You cannot carry over money left in your TexFlex dependent care FSA. You do have a 2 ½-month grace period through November 15, though. This means you must have new expenses between September 1 and November 15 and submit the claims by the run-out period, December 31. If you still have funds in your account after you’ve filed claims for your grace-period expenses, you will lose those funds.

If you have a commuter spending account (CSA)

A CSA is a month-to-month benefit. You can enroll in an account, change your contribution amount or close your account at any time—without waiting for Summer Enrollment or a qualifying life event (QLE). At the end of each month, any balance over $3 rolls over to the next month.